o2 repairs

ergonomics

Hi all. Just wondering about something.

I bought a phone with o2 in May last year. It was a flip phone and recently when I opened the phone the screen stayed blank so I'd have to open and close it a couple of times before the screen would show. It had also been dropped numerous times. I went into o2 and explained the problem, and also explained that I had dropped it (I'm honest, what can I say). They sent it off without question, and had a new LCD screen fitted, as well as a complete software upgrade, for nothing as it was under warranty. Cool stuff.

My boyfriend bought a new phone, also with o2, 3 weeks ago. Today he walked into town and went he got in he looked at his phone only to notice the LCD screen was cracked. The glass on the screen is fine but the LCD is 'bleeding', for want of a better term. He went into o2 who said they'd send it off but it would cost him to fix, basically because it got a whack off something and he broke it himself. Now, as stated, he had it in his pocket and walked into town, didn't bang off anything at all. While he was in the shop a guy came in with the same phone, same problem and had the phone same length of time. The manager in the shop basically fobbed this off as coincidence. My boyfriend is now faced with paying €60 odd to have his phone repaired when he paid €70 for it 3 weeks ago. Should o2 have repaired this under warranty or are they in the right? There wasn't a single scratch on the phone and he definitely didn't hit it off something.

Doctor DooM

ergonomics wrote: »

Hi all. Just wondering about something.

I bought a phone with o2 in May last year. It was a flip phone and recently when I opened the phone the screen stayed blank so I'd have to open and close it a couple of times before the screen would show. It had also been dropped numerous times. I went into o2 and explained the problem, and also explained that I had dropped it (I'm honest, what can I say). They sent it off without question, and had a new LCD screen fitted, as well as a complete software upgrade, for nothing as it was under warranty. Cool stuff.

My boyfriend bought a new phone, also with o2, 3 weeks ago. Today he walked into town and went he got in he looked at his phone only to notice the LCD screen was cracked. The glass on the screen is fine but the LCD is 'bleeding', for want of a better term. He went into o2 who said they'd send it off but it would cost him to fix, basically because it got a whack off something and he broke it himself. Now, as stated, he had it in his pocket and walked into town, didn't bang off anything at all. While he was in the shop a guy came in with the same phone, same problem and had the phone same length of time. The manager in the shop basically fobbed this off as coincidence. My boyfriend is now faced with paying €60 odd to have his phone repaired when he paid €70 for it 3 weeks ago. Should o2 have repaired this under warranty or are they in the right? There wasn't a single scratch on the phone and he definitely didn't hit it off something.

Generally, the only way screens bleed is through impact damage. I would have said the exact same thing, tbh- the repair company is likely to judge it as customer damage and require payment.

Bear in mind that the staff were doing you a favour when they fixed your phone for you, strictly speaking they shouldn't have (I did it all the time!). The difference is that the bleeding screen isn't something which will go undetected.

ergonomics

SDooM wrote: »

Generally, the only way screens bleed is through impact damage.

That's fair enough, and he can't prove he didn't hit it but his annoyance is that someone else came in with the exact phone, exact problem and had the phone at the exact same amount of time. It may be coincidence but it doesn't look good

Doctor DooM

ergonomics wrote: »

That's fair enough, and he can't prove he didn't hit it but his annoyance is that someone else came in with the exact phone, exact problem and had the phone at the exact same amount of time. It may be coincidence but it doesn't look good

I understand that, however the repair company will just send it back unrepaired unless the company who makes the phone admits there is an issue- its like bringing a tv back with a smashed screen saying "it's broken".

Perhaps you should contact the company who made the phone?

Davy

Has he already paid the €60? I was quoted €90 for a simple repair few months ago from repair company, cause they said customer damage, i declined. I sent it back a week later a paid nothing. Saying goes pays to shop around. Try different shops, with that type of problem though its gonna be hard

Doctor DooM

davton wrote: »

Has he already paid the €60? I was quoted €90 for a simple repair few months ago from repair company, cause they said customer damage, i declined. I sent it back a week later a paid nothing. Saying goes pays to shop around. Try different shops, with that type of problem though its gonna be hard

Trust me, if the screen is smashed, no one is going to repair under warrenty.

Davy

ergonomics wrote: »

The glass on the screen is fine but the LCD is 'bleeding',

SDooM wrote: »

Trust me, if the screen is smashed, no one is going to repair under warrenty.

Not smashed

dudara

I had a similar issue years ago with a MiniDisc player. The manufacturers were adamant and refused to budge on the issue. They held that the only way the LCD screen could have suffered damage was via impact.

Doctor DooM

davton wrote: »

Not smashed

If the screen is bleeding, it means impact damage smashed it on the inside, I'm afraid. As I said, contact the manufacturer to try and prove there is an issue with the device.

Doctor DooM

dudara wrote: »

I had a similar issue years ago with a MiniDisc player. The manufacturers were adamant and refused to budge on the issue. They held that the only way the LCD screen could have suffered damage was via impact.

In the real world I am sure there are several ways this could happen- surely if the lcd display is weak for any reason it can bleed. But it seems to be something repair facilities are fairly adamant on.

foggy_lad

there could of course be a faulty batch of screens like the recent faulty keys on the sony w580i and numerous other issues like the battery issue in nokia 6300's.

a screen will usually only get damaged through customer or impact damage but if it is faulty to begin with it is much more likely to break on its own!

bit off topic but pertains to consumers-
anyone watch dispatches on chanell 4 last night about the mobile phone industry in uk? very interesting how stores were encouraged by networks to sell deals which cost consumers more than they intended spending.
and mentioned how faulty phones were sold regardless because commission was increased to encourage store staff to clear stock.

Doctor DooM

foggy_lad wrote: »

there could of course be a faulty batch of screens like the recent faulty keys on the sony w580i and numerous other issues like the battery issue in nokia 6300's.

a screen will usually only get damaged through customer or impact damage but if it is faulty to begin with it is much more likely to break on its own!

bit off topic but pertains to consumers-
anyone watch dispatches on chanell 4 last night about the mobile phone industry in uk? very interesting how stores were encouraged by networks to sell deals which cost consumers more than they intended spending.
and mentioned how faulty phones were sold regardless because commission was increased to encourage store staff to clear stock.

I actually always tell all my friends to avoid carphone warehouse because of the commision thing- Go to all the network shops and make your own educated choice.

How do you know a phone sealed in a box is faulty before you sell it?


Furthermore, why would they increase the commision when they can simply RMA them to the suppliers?

foggy_lad

the network shops usually have better range of phones and are usually cheaper.

the network would know because of number of warranty repairs attempted in the case of the faulty screens and then would increase commission/bonus to get rid of these phones rather than have to repair them, in the uk.

Doctor DooM

foggy_lad wrote: »

the network shops usually have better range of phones and are usually cheaper.

the network would know because of number of warranty repairs attempted in the case of the faulty screens and then would increase commission/bonus to get rid of these phones rather than have to repair them, in the uk.

Not true. They are RMA'ed and the cost of repairing goes to the manufacturer. Dud phones technically cost a network nothing (I am sure this is one of the reasons Motorola got away with alot of the rubbish they put out over the years!)

board om

foggy_lad wrote: »

very interesting how stores were encouraged by networks to sell deals which cost consumers more than they intended spending.

its called upselling. it is done with pretty much every product everywhere in the world. if you are purchasing anything from a mobile phone to refurbishing your house, a good sales person will always try and upsell you and sell you add-ons. for mobile phones it might be buying a more expensive phone than you originally intended getting, and maybe buying a bluetooth headset to go with it. if you are buying new floor boards for your house then the sales person might offer to do the hallway while they are at it for a few euro extra, or tell you about another type of floorboard that might be a bit more expensive but may look a bit better. just like when you are buying a games console the sales person will ask would you like any games to go with it. its not a secret, or a scam. sales people are (mostly) paid on commission so it is in their interest to upsell and cross sell you on products. nothing wrong with it. its actually the sign of a good sales person. i would be disappointed if a sales person didnt at least try and make a cross sell of some sort, as long as they arent being pushy about it. sure my local butcher offers me dolmio sauces to go with my mince, and he offers me pepper sauce when i buy steak. he isnt trying to rip me off, he is increasing my spend.

its called turning a profit. some businessess have been known to use this tactic when trying to stay in business.

foggy_lad wrote: »

and mentioned how faulty phones were sold regardless because commission was increased to encourage store staff to clear stock.

as another post said, how do they know the phone is faulty if the box is sealed? i can tell you now they wouldnt do this because it will cost the shop more in time and effort of having to deal with the customer coming back and complaining, having to send the phone off for repair, etc etc etc. when all they have to do if the phone is faulty is send it back to the manufacutrer and get a credit or a new handset.

believe it or not the networks spend a lot of time testing handsets before releasing them to the public. that is wh you may see a new phone released by say Nokia and then months later it is on sales here. and also why the networks dont just release every phone that becomes available. they spend months testing them on the network, durability, see if there is a market for that particular model, etc. if a phone is sub-standard and is found to have problems, then the network wont support it and it wont be released. so if a phone was having problems like a screen breaking on its own then the netowrk just wont bother releasing that model. sure its not as if there is a shortage of handsets for them to choose from.

foggy_lad

board om wrote: »

its called upselling. it is done with pretty much every product everywhere in the world. if you are purchasing anything from a mobile phone to refurbishing your house, a good sales person will always try and upsell you and sell you add-ons. for mobile phones it might be buying a more expensive phone than you originally intended getting, and maybe buying a bluetooth headset to go with it. if you are buying new floor boards for your house then the sales person might offer to do the hallway while they are at it for a few euro extra, or tell you about another type of floorboard that might be a bit more expensive but may look a bit better. just like when you are buying a games console the sales person will ask would you like any games to go with it. its not a secret, or a scam. sales people are (mostly) paid on commission so it is in their interest to upsell and cross sell you on products. nothing wrong with it. its actually the sign of a good sales person. i would be disappointed if a sales person didnt at least try and make a cross sell of some sort, as long as they arent being pushy about it. sure my local butcher offers me dolmio sauces to go with my mince, and he offers me pepper sauce when i buy steak. he isnt trying to rip me off, he is increasing my spend.

its called turning a profit. some businessess have been known to use this tactic when trying to stay in business.




as another post said, how do they know the phone is faulty if the box is sealed? i can tell you now they wouldnt do this because it will cost the shop more in time and effort of having to deal with the customer coming back and complaining, having to send the phone off for repair, etc etc etc. when all they have to do if the phone is faulty is send it back to the manufacutrer and get a credit or a new handset.

believe it or not the networks spend a lot of time testing handsets before releasing them to the public. that is wh you may see a new phone released by say Nokia and then months later it is on sales here. and also why the networks dont just release every phone that becomes available. they spend months testing them on the network, durability, see if there is a market for that particular model, etc. if a phone is sub-standard and is found to have problems, then the network wont support it and it wont be released. so if a phone was having problems like a screen breaking on its own then the netowrk just wont bother releasing that model. sure its not as if there is a shortage of handsets for them to choose from.

have you watched the program i was referring to? it was on again tonight and relates to investigations in the UK where people looking for cheaper pre-pay deals were sold bill-pay deals with 6-800 minutes when their average monthly usage was around 50 minutes! thats a bit more than up-selling!

and people working in the business in well known "high street" phone stores talked about selling phones with known faults because the cost of warranty repairs would be less than the cost of repairing all the affected phones!

if they sold 1000 faulty phones not all of them would develop the fault within a year and for the rest not everyone would get the phone repaired a lot of people are simply talked into upgrading by sales staff motivated by high commission!

board om

foggy_lad wrote: »

have you watched the program i was referring to? it was on again tonight and relates to investigations in the UK where people looking for cheaper pre-pay deals were sold bill-pay deals with 6-800 minutes when their average monthly usage was around 50 minutes! thats a bit more than up-selling!

that is still upselling. sales consultants would be paid more commission for a bill pay phone than a ready to go phone, so it is in there interest to get people on to bill pay. i worked for eircell over 10 years ago in retail and it was the same then. we got more commission for bill pay and we had higher targets for bill pay. regarding what tariff the customer picks, that is up to the customer at the end of the day. you cant say that they were 'made' buy a package consisting of 600-800 minutes per month when they were only using 50 minutes. the tariffs are there for the customer to see so if they are only using 50 minutes then they are stupid if they are signing up to a package with 600-800 minutes. it could be a case that they are motivated by the cheaper price opf the phone becuase obviouly the higher the tariff you take the cheaper the phone. but still it doesnt make sense to pay a few hundred quid a month on a tariff if you arent using the minutes. besides, you can change the tariff with most of the networks.

foggy_lad wrote: »

and people working in the business in well known "high street" phone stores talked about selling phones with known faults because the cost of warranty repairs would be less than the cost of repairing all the affected phones!

if they sold 1000 faulty phones not all of them would develop the fault within a year and for the rest not everyone would get the phone repaired a lot of people are simply talked into upgrading by sales staff motivated by high commission!

that is pretty much every phone then. out of every 1000 mobile phones sold there are always going to be a few faulty ones. in fact i am sure out of every 1000 computers Dell sell they have a few faulty ones. but again it wouldnt cost the shop anything to get them repaired, it would fall on the manufacturer of the phone. it makes no difference to the network becuase they dont pay for warranty repairs or new units, the manufacturer does. what i would say is it is more than likely mouthy sales people slagging off certain phones with crap features. we used to do that too. i remember the nokia 3210 i think it was. they were one of the first phones with an internal ariel so the signal used to go on them. it wasnt that they were faulty, it was just becuase it was new tchnology that sometimes the internal ariel used to fcuk up. now the shops knew that happened, but they werent all faulty, it might have been 1 out of every few hundred. considering it was probably one of the biggest sellling phones at the time it seemed like there were lots of faulty units, but if you consider how many were sold the ratio of faulty to non faulty wasnt that bad. but apart from that they were a great phone.

unfortunetly that is technology for you. it isnt alway perfect. especially not in the early stages. sure years ago i would have always said when a new model phone came out dont buy it for at least 6 months. and the reason was becuase in the first 6 months they were still finding faults in the phone, but then when they released the 2nd generation of the phone it was always better. it didnt mean they were faulty though.

Doctor DooM

foggy_lad wrote: »

have you watched the program i was referring to? it was on again tonight and relates to investigations in the UK where people looking for cheaper pre-pay deals were sold bill-pay deals with 6-800 minutes when their average monthly usage was around 50 minutes! thats a bit more than up-selling!

and people working in the business in well known "high street" phone stores talked about selling phones with known faults because the cost of warranty repairs would be less than the cost of repairing all the affected phones!

if they sold 1000 faulty phones not all of them would develop the fault within a year and for the rest not everyone would get the phone repaired a lot of people are simply talked into upgrading by sales staff motivated by high commission!

Yeah Foggy I saw it last night, I have to say they were making something out of nothing in SOME cases.

They were upselling and making add on sales. Happens in every shop in the country. For example, "want fries with that?"

Why is the consumer signing a contract without educating themselves first? That is the root issue. TBH the reason I am no longer employed in retail is I lost my taste for constantly pushing people to buy more.

The payback thing is awful.

Sorry, but the thing with the dodgy phones is simply sensationalism. you've got a dodgy batch of phones, you RMA them to the supplier for full credit.

Bear in mind even a good batch of phones you may see 20-30% back of during a year- simply the nature of electrical goods.


<EDIT>: Was the astronomical profit made off text messages not very well known? I knew about that before I worked in the phone industry.

Gillo

I missed the show last night, was watching something else and meant to pick it up on More 4 +1, but didn't so I won't comment on the show, but everything SDoom is saying rings through.

In fact the point on up selling is comical, anyone working in sales up sells or they won't make it very far whether that's fries, a bluetooth headset, matching cushions, the same colour eyeliner as your lipstick. The list goes on and on. I've seen it selling phones myself, despite advising people to go on a lower tariff that will suit them better they "know best" and go with the demand to go on a higher tariff because the phone is cheaper to buy on the day.

foggy_lad

i think the issue with the up-selling was maybe relating to the tactics used by some sales people giving people possibly misleading information on prices and minutes length of contract etc

are you told in macD's that the fries are good for you? or that it is cheaper to get a large meal even though you told them you are dieting and only asked for a small meal?

sales staff must put food on the table same as everyone but the show was more about the industry promoting unscruples practices including that cash-back scheme and offering sales people extra commissions to promote these practices

Doctor DooM

foggy_lad wrote: »

i think the issue with the up-selling was maybe relating to the tactics used by some sales people giving people possibly misleading information on prices and minutes length of contract etc

are you told in macD's that the fries are good for you? or that it is cheaper to get a large meal even though you told them you are dieting and only asked for a small meal?

sales staff must put food on the table same as everyone but the show was more about the industry promoting unscruples practices including that cash-back scheme and offering sales people extra commissions to promote these practices

Fine. If sales assistants give wrong information, thats wrong.

Whats that got to do with the networks, seeing as these assistants don't work for them?

To use your own analogy- Yes, McDonalds assistants DO try to upsell you regardless! They ask everyone if they want fries!

Phone networks offer extra commision for contracts for contracts, that is true.

This is because it is a business. As I said- why are people signing legally binding contracts if they don't understand whats in them? There is a deeper issue in society that this is the case, and Dispatches was more interested in finding a bogeyman than looking at that.

Gillo wrote: »

I missed the show last night, was watching something else and meant to pick it up on More 4 +1, but didn't so I won't comment on the show, but everything SDoom is saying rings through.

In fact the point on up selling is comical, anyone working in sales up sells or they won't make it very far whether that's fries, a bluetooth headset, matching cushions, the same colour eyeliner as your lipstick. The list goes on and on. I've seen it selling phone myself, despite advising people to go on a lower tariff that will suit them better they "know best" and go with the higher tariff because the phone is cheaper to buy on the day.

I know from my commission structure, once I sign a customer up to bill pay I get the same commission regardless of which tariff they go on.

I worked for O2, so I'd want to sound like I'm ringing true!

mcbads08

SDooM wrote: »

Fine. If sales assistants give wrong information, thats wrong.

Whats that got to do with the networks, seeing as these assistants don't work for them?

To use your own analogy- Yes, McDonalds assistants DO try to upsell you regardless! They ask everyone if they want fries!

Phone networks offer extra commision for contracts for contracts, that is true.

This is because it is a business. As I said- why are people signing legally binding contracts if they don't understand whats in them? There is a deeper issue in society that this is the case, and Dispatches was more interested in finding a bogeyman than looking at that.



I worked for O2, so I'd want to sound like I'm ringing true!

Absolutely agree, it's like buying a box of teabags in Tesco that have a dent and complaining to Barry's Tea instead of Tesco - it's the retailers responsibility not the supplier/provider!
In this day and age there's enough publicity and information available to consumers that some responsibility also lies with the consumer to make sure they know what they are buying or signing up to! Sad that we have to do it but a known reality none the less!

BTW back on track on the original post agree with earlier posts that in the case of mobiles buy from the network retail store not an indepent channel.. the immediate swop out on faulty O2 phones is pretty impressive so always better to buy direct from the network and save yourself the hassle incase you do have problems down the road!